


An Abundance of Rogues

by QuantumGhosts (YourIdiotWriter)



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Gen, M/M, One Shot, Reincarnation, i mean they're all buds, if briefly, it's just that those pairs are mentioned in particular
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 07:04:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10826235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourIdiotWriter/pseuds/QuantumGhosts
Summary: Reincarnation AU ft. the entire Rogue One team. Basically a series of snippets into their many lives. They don't know what's happening, so they just roll with it.Mostly feels with light humour.





	An Abundance of Rogues

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written for a fandom that isn't Naruto in a good three years, and Rogue One is my very first Star Wars movies so I'm...definitely outside of my comfort zone LOL so please tell me what you liked!! Encouragement is highly appreciated <3 
> 
> Special thank you to erebones for essentially beta-reading this for me and supporting my weary soul, u da best, ilu ♥

Kaytoo ran his equations and calculated the best outcome. It was guaranteed by his zero percent chance of survival.

Chirrut challenged death in every step he took, driving it into a corner until it had no choice but to ambush him like a coward.

Baze embraced death with trembling arms, wanting it all for himself. The last thing he saw was his life, unmoving before his eyes.

Bodhi looked death right in the eye. It came so quickly that he had no time for shock or fear, only acceptance.

Jyn and Cassian admired it like the rising sun, basking in its warmth until it swallowed them whole.

They'd accepted their fates, one way or another. They'd accepted that there would no turning back, long before they'd set foot on the planet.

That was supposed to be it.

* * *

The first time they're reborn again, it feels like a dream. It may as well be, because the only time the fleeting memories of their past lives come back to them is in their sleep. They're gone in the morning, leaving them nostalgic and breathless, and unsure of what kind of dream could leave them feeling so restless.

Their lives don't stray very far from what they're used to. Chirrut and Baze grow up in a temple, leaving only when the fog in their dreams finally clear after years of meditation and training. The memories come in waves that pull them under and fill their lungs with an entire lifetime's worth of joy, of fear, of loss - but it is their rediscovered love that makes Chirrut's laugh brighter than ever before, makes Baze hold Chirrut closer than ever before.

(Baze realizes that he'll one day have to suffer losing Chirrut again, and nearly breaks Chirrut's back as he holds him closer still.)

Chirrut and Baze left with a heartfelt goodbye to their brothers, who protested, but accepted. They had important matters to tend to, after all. They had a family to find.

Cassian is once again thrown into a fight all-too soon, having lost his parents to war and seeking refuge with his cousin. They run far, and when his cousin eventually collapses, Cassian runs farther still. It's good that he never looked back, he thinks, because otherwise he might have missed Bodhi that day.

They run into Chirrut and Baze when they reach the city, where the two had already been waiting for three years. Cassian stays up until the sun rises that night, and Bodhi remembers that he is the pilot.

Kaytoo has the hardest time adjusting, although he doesn't know why. He just…doesn't feel right, with his disproportionate limbs and scrawny legs. He picks at his skin, and his beady eyes that are too big for his head make him an easy target for cruel children who have yet to learn empathy.

He grows bitter and resentful, his words made of snide remarks more often than not - his body battered and bruised more often than not. He was getting ready to take another hit when his attackers got hit instead, and the girl who helped him up introduced herself as Jyn.

They're the last to be found, tucked away in the musky corners of Jyn's bedroom attic, and it takes hardly a glance for Kaytoo to remember, to understand why he has always felt the way he does. He doesn't know if he prefers a body made of flesh and bone over circuits and coding, but admittedly had always been curious about what Cassian feels like.

(He finds Cassian to be pleasantly warm, and perhaps that he would like another hug sometime in the future.)

It took far too long to get to this point, they think, and now that they're here, they're at a loss of what to do. Their life is suddenly fragile, like hypertension glass, at risk of shattering from just a single touch.

But then, it's suddenly filled with comfort and familiarity, with laughter and bickering that they could never afford to waste time on before. Their time is finite still, but it's more than they could have ever hoped for, so when it finally runs out, they're ready.

Baze is the first to go, sick and weary with age. He holds Chirrut's hand until his final breath, too tired to cry away the weight in his chest, but not enough to keep from smiling. It's hard to be upset when he all he prayed for was enough time to say goodbye, but instead had been blessed with an entire lifetime more. It'd be rude, he thinks, to scorn death this time, even though they got to live in an era of peace and used their training only for health, and not war. Yes, he thinks. This time, it's alright.

Because death doesn't sneak up behind them in the form of a gun or a grenade this time, but rather like a mother's warmth soothing her child to sleep. The last thing he hears is Chirrut's voice, wet and cracked over a gentle prayer.

So when he wakes up again, it's almost embarrassing.

Almost, because he doesn't know if his initial reaction is to be relieved or heartbroken that Chirrut doesn't remember.

(Which is ironic, given that he's a Buddhist monk in this life.)

But Chirrut, being Chirrut, has always been always vaguely all-knowing. That, at least, has stayed constant. He feels a peculiar sense of nostalgia overcome him whenever they're together, particularly when they exchange hushed whispers in the early morning. It's warm, and so he trusts it, letting it guide him to Baze's side.

Baze had mentioned what he remembered only once, when they first met in this third life. The heavy drop of his heart when Chirrut responded with a furrowed brow and tilted head was more than enough to make him dare never to raise the subject again.

Not until years later, at least, when a certain young man comes to pray, supposedly to learn of the country he was adopted from. He spots them first and greets them by name before they even see him. His voice startles Baze into turning around with a pang in his chest, and he gratefully welcomes the pilot into his arms.

Bodhi remembers, he explains. He took an educated guess by searching the temples for Chirrut and Baze. Chirrut doesn't remember, Baze explains. Bodhi falls silent, his eyes pinched and stinging.

Chirrut reassures them with a laugh and smile, tries to hide how they're weighed down with sorrow. There is always next time, after all, and while Baze has his fears that Chirrut's lack of memory suggests the end of their cycle, of course he's right.

Jyn finds them when she is a tourist with her father. Kaytoo and Cassian follow shortly after her to study the temple's architecture. They live their third lives - separate, but still connected - until the end, after which Chirrut takes his chance to make up for lost time when he remembers that this new life is his fourth.

It's the first time he's not with Baze, but at least he remembers, he thinks. Despite having been with them, he feels as though he'd been cheated out of a year, so in his desperation to find them as soon as possible, he begins his search as soon as he can afford to travel alone.

Chirrut finds the search to be shorter than the ones that came before, perhaps because he has developed some kind of instinct for where they might be, or perhaps because they are searching for him as well. It hardly matters when they are all face to face again, and because of Chirrut's unexpected missing memories from the third life, they discuss their situation for the first time.

The future is nothing but the unknown, and although they are living proof of the contrary, surely all life must eventually die and _stay_ dead. How many more lives does that leave them with, then? How will they know which life is their last? What is the purpose of this, if any, for them to be caught in this cycle - a cycle that has become both a blessing and a curse, because as much as they are grateful to have more time with each other, at what point should they truly mourn each other's deaths?

Their fourth lives ultimately end with them having found no answers, and the cycle continues indefinitely.

In trying to make sense of it, they find that there are patterns, but little to no constants, like how Baze is with Chirrut more often than not. He's an asteroid caught in Chirrut's orbit - wherever Chirrut goes, he goes, no matter where, or when.

Kaytoo is almost always human. The first time he wasn't, the others still manage to recognize him because one day, in the living room of their shared home, the Roomba shows up with a knife taped to it and everyone insists they didn't do it.

(Another time, he's a cat, and relishes in being pampered and spoiled. He's rather fond of being a cat.)

The other three almost always start alone, except for the one time Cassian arrives nearly fourteen years late with a daughter named Jyn.

(They are not blood-related, however, for Jyn Erso will always be Jyn Erso, and while she is not sure at what point she should for the others, she will always mourn for her father.)

And so not even their ages are constant. The life after, Baze and Chirrut become the fathers of four after a complicated process of being godfathers and adoption. In the one after that, Bodhi runs a daycare where he struggles to keep Chirrut off the trees, Jyn and Cassian from fighting, and Kaytoo from taking everything apart. Bodhi's happy to take care of the ones he loves most, but he's also happy to know that he can get payback in their next life.

(Baze is the only well-behaved toddler - he sleeps through the day like the old man he always will be, no matter what age.)

After tens of lifetimes, they find that whatever this is, it's less about the nature of their relationship and more about whether or not they are together at all. They take the ones where they are for granted.

But then Baze misses Chirrut by a fleeting moment, the doors of the subway closing just a second too soon, and he fears that he's lost his chance. He runs after it until he reaches the end of the station, certain that he'd spotted those familiar blue eyes looking back at him. Chirrut blinks, unseeing, having sworn that he'd heard his name being called, that he'd just missed something terribly important.

At the same time, Cassian is checking passports for the passengers of the flight that just landed. If only he'd started his training at the academy sooner instead of taking a gap year, he would have been in the same class as Jyn. Meanwhile, Jyn starts her shift at the security check, and if only she'd looked up from the screen just a second sooner, she would have seen Kaytoo walk through her gate. Kaytoo boards his flight for his business trip, and if only he hadn't put his headphones in so early, he would have heard Bodhi Rook introducing himself as their pilot this evening.

They spend the rest of that life waiting for the moment they'll finally meet. They die learning that sometimes they never will.

And so the next time they find each other, they know to cherish it while it lasts, because there's no longer any guarantee that they can afford to wait until next time. If there's a point to any of this, that might've been it - to value their time, no matter how much of it they have or how much they think they have (but then, it's not like some all-knowing being will descend from the sky and tell them if they're right or wrong, or confirm that there's a particular purpose at all).

Their hearts are like a string being drawn taut, tight and full of tension the farther they are from each other, a constant ache the longer they are away from each other, and maybe the cycles will end with a sudden snap, with no warning. But, they think, so long as they treasure each and every moment they have, perhaps the end won't be so bad.

**Author's Note:**

> Usually this is where I say you can find more content on my blog but...this is the first Rogue One thing I've posted so that's not entirely true LOL but I do plan on posting more fics for Rogue One so there's that! Anyway my tumblr is [quantumghosts](http://quantumghosts.tumblr.com/) in case anybody wants to check it out anyway \ o /
> 
> also i wrote this entire thing just so i could use the roomba line, it's my fave and i regret nothing


End file.
